Well, maybe we should all live in a rubber room? If NASA had the same fears we would have never made it to the moon, or off the ground. Different strokes for different folks. Now, if I blew two tires alone (which I have done) I'd find a way to repair one. I ended up with about 10 plugs in the sidewall and I had to replace them every so often when they spit out, but I got back to civilization. And if I had to, I'd burn the tire off and drive out on the bare wheel! It's not like we head out wheeling alone unprepared, we've ridden this bull a few times.
As for the sway bar disconnects, generally I'm not a big fan of them. I like to have a light sway bar connected on coil-sprung Jeeps on- and off-road. Sure, disconnecting it offers a smoother ride and more articulation, but it also makes the Jeep less stable at all speeds. And running disconnects with a lift and not replacing the shocks seems counter-productive to me. Sure the suspension moves but it's limited by the short shocks. Why bother disconnecting the sway bar?
Lovin' Grand Diesel
I have owned an '07 Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0L diesel for 11,000 miles and a little over a year. This is my fifth Jeep ('73 Wagoneer, '75 Wagoneer, '96 Cherokee, and '98 Grand Cherokee). The build quality is much better, the seats are fantastic. The full-time four-wheel-drive is the best yet. My favorite feature is the diesel engine. It gets 19 mpg in the city, 23 mpg on the highway, but it tows my boat like it isn't even behind you. My '96 Cherokee will tow the boat, but the mileage goes from 19 mpg to about 8 mpg and the 4.0L struggles on mountain roads. Living in Montana where snow and ice are common, all the automatic stability controls that I thought I would hate really do work well. The only problem I have had is leaky transmission guide bushings at 11,000 miles. I could not get any other answer besides, "wear" when I ask why they failed. I hope it is a one-time deal. The only thing I don't like is the sealed transmission. You have to have a special dip stick that plugs into a computer to measure the fluid temperature to get the level correct. This means I can't service the transmission myself, or even check the fluid level. Other than that, I would buy another diesel Grand without hesitation.Doug NissonKalispell, Montana
Master Of Mileage
Just a quick note about your project Mileage Master XJ. I love the fact that you are building a rig to be driven to a wheeling spot and then driven home without the need for a tow vehicle. I have a '94 Grand Cherokee that is stock except for 30x9.50-15 tires, a roof rack, sliders and other skid plates. It is great for mild to moderate trails and is still exceptionally comfortable on the interstate. Keep up the good work.Ed GiesenWichita, KansasAT Discrimination
Why does Jp magazine only seem to talk about mud tires. I have a '98 Jeep Cherokee with a 3-inch lift on 31x10.50R15 Dick Cepek FC2 tires. I can go all over with them but all you seem to talk about is mud tires or super aggressive tires. I would love to see a tire shootout with all-terrains like the Pro Comp AT and XAT, BF Goodrich AT, Mickey Thompson ATZ Plus and ATZ, Dick Cepek FC2, Trxus STS and so on. People love mud tires but with the price of gas, all terrains seem to be better on the pocket and you can have just as much fun with all-terrains as you can with mud tires.Justin SlaterAlma, Michigan
For the street, you can't beat a set of all-terrain tires. However, our experience dictates that any amount of slick clay-like mud makes pretty much every all-terrain tire worthless. They become a drag slick. That's why we tend to steer toward the more aggressive mud-terrain tires, even in relatively dry California. It still rains now and then and we do get snow at higher elevations. The rest of the U.S. gets even more rain than we do.
If we strictly drove on the street, we'd run street tires, but we do a lot of off-roading. The mud tires almost always provide more traction in any given terrain including rocks, snow, sand, and so on. In our minds that extra traction is generally worth the small sacrifice in mpg. Besides, a well-designed radial mud-terrain tire provides mpg numbers similar to a radial all-terrain. Yes, it's true, heavy bias-ply mud tires with huge tread lugs do eat up some mpg. But if you're eyeballing Swampers then you probably are not too concerned about mpg and are more interested in increasing your Jeep's capability, which ultimately is what Jp magazine is all about.
Get To Work Trasborg!While waiting for the newest issue of Jp to drop into my mailbox, I spend most of my time reading through older issues that I keep handy. As I was reading the November '07 issue, in the "What we're talking about around the office" section, the last comment refers to a staff member that doesn't want to get handcuffed, tasered, beat with a baton, pepper sprayed, shot in the groin with a bean bag, and so on (I can't imagine why he wouldn't want to do all that?). It says that the staff member refused to do all that for an upcoming article about a cop-car to Jeep engine-swap story. Now I read every issue and I don't remember seeing that one. Did the story ever run? I was just wondering because I am a police officer and a few of the guys I work with enjoy off-roading and Jeeps, so I thought they would get a kick out of a cop car engine in a Jeep. Ronald B. Metairie, Louisiana
Sit tight, it's coming and even better is that the swap will be completed in the parking garage at our offices. No special tools, shops, or mechanics required. Pete Trasborg is making the swap. Drop him a line at pete.trasbog@jpmagazine.com and tell him to get his butt in gear.
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Write to: JP Magazine Editor 6420 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90048 E-mail to: john.cappa@jpmagazine.com